At TMI Project, we believe storytelling is a vehicle for human connection and can ignite hope during the darkest of times. We’re dedicated to helping you tell your stories and stay connected even if we can’t be in the same room with each other. To that end, we invite you to submit a story of up to 1000 words about hope, resilience, loneliness, silver linings and the unexpected gifts you’ve received and losses you’ve grieved during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know you need to write about your experiences and our audience needs to hear them. A selection of stories will be chosen to be featured on our  website, across our social media platforms, and a handful will be picked to be performed during a live zoom performance on November 30th.

Submission Deadline: Monday, November 2nd, 2020

To help you get started, below are writing prompts. They are meant to open doors in your mind to different experiences you may have had, and/or different perspectives on those experiences. The prompts are merely suggestions. You might want to choose one or go with a combination. However, if none of the prompts appeal to you, write what you feel compelled to write about instead. We recommend reading through them, regardless, as they might inform and expand on what you have in mind to write about. 

This is an open call for submissions but, keep in mind, we center our programming around four social justice initiatives: Anti-Racism, Gender Equality, LGBTQ Rights, and Mental Health Awareness. We’re particularly interested in pandemic-related stories that address these focus areas.

A TMI Project story has specific required elements: 

• All stories have to be true. 
• All stories are first-person stories. You, the writer, are the main character.
• You’re willing to be vulnerable and expose your humanity by including the “TMI” parts of your story — the parts we usually leave out because of shame, embarrassment, stigma or cultural expectations. 
• Your story is about an experience in which you went through some kind of transformation from beginning to end with tension in the middle that makes the reader want to keep reading.

When you share something you’ve learned about yourself, as we listen or read, we learn about ourselves too. If you’ve experienced being wronged by someone but didn’t learn something about yourself in the process, we suggest venting about it in your journal. But, if you’ve survived an experience or hardship that revealed something about yourself or changed you in the process, we invite you to submit your story.

Writing Prompts:

To help you get started, below are writing prompts. They are meant to open doors in your mind to different experiences you may have had, and/or different perspectives on those experiences. The prompts are merely suggestions. You might want to choose one or go with a combination. However, if none of the prompts appeal to you, write what you feel compelled to write about instead. We recommend reading through them, regardless, as they might inform and expand on what you have in mind to write about. 

Write a story about:

1. Something you didn’t appreciate before the pandemic that you cherish now.
2. A time when someone helped you.
3. A time when being of service changed you for the better.
4. An unexpected gift you’ve received or a loss you’ve grieved during the pandemic.
5. A time you could easily see the silver lining.

Please note: Not everyone who submits will be published on our site or invited to read. If you are chosen, you must be willing to have your story edited.